Constellations, groups of stars that allegedly make pictures in the sky, have been dreamed up by humankind throughout the centuries. Depending on the culture, they can be all kinds of things. Constellations can represent people, monsters, gods, instruments, and much more. Almost 100 years ago, the International Astronomical Union developed a standard list of 88 constellations, most from Greek and Roman mythology tales. Eight of these constellations are birds. Aquila the Eagle is one of the best bird constellations, and in late August and early September, it flies high in the southern early evening sky.

The best way to find Aquila is to use the handy tool known as the “Summer Triangle,” which is a prominent asterism formed by the three bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Just look for the three brightest stars you can see high in the southeast sky in the early evening this time of year, and that’s it, the big triangle. Each of these stars is the brightest in their own three respective constellations.  The highest and brightest star is Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra the Harp. On the lower left is Deneb, the brightest star in the Cygnus the Swan. The star on the lower right of the Summer Triangle is Altair, the brightest shiner in Aquila the Eagle.

(Mike Lynch)

As you can see in the diagram, Altair is on the left-hand point of a large vertical diamond that, without too much imagination, outlines the wingspan of the heavenly eagle. Altair is at the heart of the eagle. To the right of the star on the right side of the diamond, you’ll see a faint line of stars that outline the tail of Aquila. The head of the eagle is on the left side of Altair, but you’ll have to rely totally on your imagination to see it. There are no real stars in that part of Aquila to help you.

Altair is the 12th-brightest star in the sky, and it’s relatively close, only 16 light-years or about 97 trillion miles away. Believe it or not, that’s much closer than most stars in the night sky. Because it’s so close, astronomers know quite a bit about it. Altair is almost 1.5 million miles in diameter, twice as large as our sun but cranking out a lot more light than our home star, more than 10 times as much.

The most fascinating discovery made about Altair is that it has a bulging waistline. The Palomar Observatory in California discovered that Altair’s diameter is more than 20% larger along its equator than from pole to pole. Further observations revealed that Altair is rapidly spinning on its axis at the rate of one full rotation in less than nine hours. By comparison, our sun takes more or less an entire month for one rotation. Like all other stars, Altair is a big ball of gas, so its rapid spinning and centrifugal force, the same force you feel on a fast merry-go-round, causes it to bulge out at its equator something fierce.

Wild Duck Cluster (Mike Lynch)

Scan your telescope all around Aquila, and you’ll find some lovely little star clusters of young stars, but the best eye candy through a small to moderately sized telescope is Messier object 11, otherwise known as M11, which is just off the tail of Aquila. M11, as it’s referred to, is technically in a small adjacent constellation called Scutum the Shield. M11 is a beautiful open cluster of almost 3000 stars, over 6,000 light-years, or a little over 35,000 trillion miles away! They’re estimated to be very young stars, around 220 million years old, making them infants as far as star lifetimes go. M11 is called the “Wild Duck Cluster” because many people see it as a flock of flying ducks. Crank up your imagination to see that image!

One of the leading Greek mythology stories about Aquila has the eagle as Zeus’s faithful pet. Zeus, of course, was the king of the gods of Mount Olympus. Aquila accomplished many missions for Zeus, including torturing enemies and delivering thunderbolts. The eagle’s main claim to fame was his capture of the Trojan shepherd boy Ganymede, son of King Tros, to become the cup-bearer of the gods on Olympus. Zeus wanted the finest young man he could find to become the bartender of the gods. He sent Aquila on a reconnaissance mission where he discovered Ganymede, plucked him up by the shoulders, and delivered him to Zeus. Ganymede proved worthy of his forced labor, and happy hour was great on Mount Olympus ever after. Zeus rewarded his faithful eagle by placing him among the stars as the constellation we now see high in the southeast sky.

Incidentally, it’s no coincidence that one of Jupiter’s largest moons is named Ganymede since Jupiter is the Roman name for Zeus. The planet Jupiter is available in the sky right now, but it doesn’t get high enough to see in the eastern sky until after midnight, but it’s worth the wait!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

Skywatch programs

Friday, Aug. 30, 8:30-10:30 p.m., Lake Elmo Park Reserve, Lake Elmo. For information and reservations call 651-430-8370 or visit www.co.washington.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=532

Saturday, Aug. 31, 8:30-11 p.m., Forest History Center, Grand Rapids, Minn. For more information, call 218-327-4482 or visit www.mnhs.org/foresthistory?utm_source=extnet&utm_medium=yext

In just under three years, Zach Bryan has gone from playing the Fillmore Minneapolis nightclub to the biggest stage in town. Saturday night, he filled U.S. Bank Stadium to the rafters with a confident, often compelling and surprisingly loud performance that suggested he has yet to hit his peak.

The 28-year-old’s remarkably swift ascent is all the more notable given that he did it outside the traditional Nashville path to stardom. Indeed, he began his career while still in the Navy, self-releasing his music online to an ever-growing audience. In late 2021, he was honorably discharged after eight years of service, hit the road and hasn’t stopped since.

That year, he played the Basilica Block Party and the Fillmore, which he mentioned twice during Saturday’s show. He sold out Surly Brewing Festival Field in 2022 and Target Center the following summer.

While he is signed to Warner Records, it’s clear Bryan’s the one calling all the shots, as he’s successfully crafted a career out of highly personal numbers that lean heavily into heartache and sadness. He’s also exceedingly prolific and has issued 85 songs over the past two years, across three albums, two EPs and a pair of standalone singles. (That said, he could use some editing, as his records tend to get repetitive the deeper you get into them.)

In a nod to a famously prolific Minnesotan, Bryan took the stage to “When Doves Cry” and jumped right into “Overtime” in a big and booming arrangement that set the pace for the evening. Rather than let his intimate songs get swallowed up by the size of the room, Bryan and his versatile band amped them up in every aspect, turning even the ballads into stadium (country) rockers.

Bruce Springsteen’s acoustic “Nebraska” album is an obvious influence on Bryan’s music and he’s clearly borrowed a thing or two from the E Street Band in terms of live performance, which was evident Saturday night in songs like “Open the Gate,” “Oak Island” and “Oklahoma Smokeshow.” (Not only did Bryan get the Boss to sit in on his song “Sandpaper” from his latest album “The Great American Bar Scene,” Springsteen joined Bryan onstage in Philadelphia for a pair of songs earlier this month.)

Bryan and company played on a long, sparse stage with a giant video screen behind them that stretched from one end of the stadium floor to the other. To help recreate the neighborhood/dive bar vibes of his music, strings of outdoor patio-style lights stretched above crowd.

From the start, Bryan has shown strength as a live performer and Saturday it felt like he had gained an even larger sense of confidence, both with his stage presence and his voice. (His trick of substituting Minneapolis or Minnesota into his song lyrics did get old pretty quickly, though.)

One can’t help but wonder, however, if he’s taking proper care of that voice. More than ever before, he slips into a gruff shout and barks out lyrics like Cookie Monster. During “Dawns,” he almost took it too far, with a sing/shout that was almost violent. That kind of singing can be tough to maintain and, at least for now, it doesn’t look like this guy is going away any time soon.

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While there’s a rich tradition of standup comedy at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand, it’s likely been a long time since a comedian outdrew all of the pop and country acts on the schedule. After all, could one person with a microphone standing relatively still onstage and talking really outdraw arena-rock headliners?

But that might be the case with Saturday night’s monologue by comedian Nate Bargatze. Over the course of a 20-year career, this funnyman from Tennessee has gradually ascended into the pantheon of currently active standup comedians, and a full-to-the-back fence Grandstand is the latest evidence that he’s among those at the peak of the field.

How is it that one man with one hand almost invariably behind his back speaking into a microphone could attract a sellout crowd of 13,570? Well, it helps that Bargatze’s a clean comedian who has a gift for finding common ground with his audiences through typical American experiences like attending a child’s career day at school or going through a drive-through at a fast food joint. But Bargatze has a particular gift for the short short story, engaging an audience in a tale for just long enough, then moving on to the next anecdote.

It’s all very accessible material, and Saturday’s hour-long set was as all-American as it could be. Like countless comedians before him, Bargatze spent a fair amount of his chat with the audience speaking of life at his house, where he makes clear that his wife is the brains of the outfit. Yes, he’s a self-deprecating guy who speaks of himself as rarely making the wisest move in a given situation, but mines every tale for laughs.

Delivering his stories in a slight southern drawl and at a very relaxed pace, Bargatze started his routine with the story of a Little League faux pas, establishing the format that most of his humor is at his own expense. But he’s quite skilled at making an audience feel as if they’re laughing with him, not at him. All of his humorous mistakes and everyday challenges become the kind of comedy that keeps you smiling throughout a set, with occasional bursts of laughter along the way.

On Saturday night, his avenue toward establishing rapport with his audience came via ordering from DoorDash, children having sleepovers, and lighthearted domestic disputes that he knows he has no chance of winning. While he could slip into generalizations that could be a little too close to that old school “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” stuff, the best material was the most specific, as when he spoke of his wife being frugal while he’s wasteful (“I married an old man from the Depression”).

There was also the challenge of assisting aging parents (“I walk in front of them like a sherpa, saying, ‘There’s a carpet coming up’”). But the strongest story of the night was his very funny tale of being a meter reader for a water company in Tennessee in 2001, and enlisted to guard his town’s water tower in case of terrorist attack. It was a great example of taking a time filled with fear and trepidation and playing it for delicious laughs.

He was preceded to the stage by four other comedians, each with a style quite distinctive from that of the headliner. Among them, Lachlan Patterson was engagingly low-key and slow-paced, Mike James a master of the twisting punch line, and Nick Thune a guitar-strumming absurdist from the Steven Wright school.